Veteran science teacher Mark Fontenot will retire from the Haines High School at the end of the school year.
Science teacher Mark Fontenot.
Mr. Fontenot has been the high school science teacher in Haines for the last 26 years. He says it’s with a mixture of melancholy and excitement that he announces his retirement.
“I feel incredibly fortunate to have been able to teach at such an amazing school with such just uncommonly wonderful students,” he said.
“I just think that, that we have a top notch school in an incredible place, and that we take great advantage of that and get to work with kids that are really real, really authentic, real Alaskan kids.”
In his announcement to the superintendent and school board, he wrote that teaching in the district has been his life’s greatest pride. He says he can’t imagine a better experience as an educator, largely due to the long-term relationships with students and colleagues.
Fontenot describes himself as a wannabe tinkerer and inventor, and he has a post-retirement to-do list to prove it: travel, welding projects, and getting current on his pilot’s license. But there are still a few months of classes to go.
“I’m gonna go out with a bang. I’m not going to fizzle out. I was really committed to moving on before I lost passion for what I was doing. I think everyone’s had teachers that probably should have retired years before they did. I didn’t want to be that guy,” he said.
He means going out with a literal bang—Fontenot says he plans to blow a few things up in science class before he hangs up his safety goggles.
Fontenot plans to maintain his primary residence in Haines after retirement and to add his name to the substitute teacher roster.
